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When the daguerreotype process was announced to the public in 1839, the exposure times were between 20 and 30 minutes. This made portraiture a challenge. Within a year, enthusiastic experimentation led to technical improvements, reducing the exposure times to about two minutes. They soon fell to half a minute. Daguerreotype portrait studios opened around the world, in response to the public’s desire for likenesses of themselves and loved ones. This image was made towards the end of the daguerreotype’s peak period. While it belongs to the daguerreotype portrait tradition, it is not a commercial studio portrait. The photographer placed his family out-of-doors, at his sister’s home. Outdoor daguerreotype portraits are unusual.

Daguerreotype

The first commercial photographic process. A daguerreotype is a finely detailed image formed on a sheet of silver-plated copper. It is fragile and non-reproducible.